Stranger Things: 10 Things The Duffer Brothers Want You to Know Before Watching the Final Season 

Even when Stranger Things comes to an end on Dec. 31, fans of the series will have more action, monsters and mysteries coming their way — spinoff series Stranger Things: Tales from ’85, is set to debut on Netflix in 2026. As fans prepare for the final season, THR asked Ross and Matt if viewers should stay on the lookout for anything in season five that helps set up the animated series. But they can confirm it’s “reallycompletely separate” from the flagship show.

“It takes place betweenseasonstwo and three.We like that age of thekids,and that we could pick an age and have them frozen at that age,” Matt says of the upcoming spinoff.“These animated versions of the characters are doing what we wish was possible with our kids, which is that they are frozen in time.That’s really fun, but really is its own thing.We were trying toevokethe feeling of a Saturday morning cartoon.”

He continues, “RossandI are the oneswho initially pitched this idea because we grew up watchingThe RealGhostbusters.We’rehuge fans of Ghostbusters,butwe also love Real Ghostbusters.We love Beetlejuice, butwe’realso fans of the Beetlejuice cartoons, so we thoughtit’dbe cool to have something like that for our show.But thenit’salso very modern.It’ssort of like the show, where it takes this old school idea and mentality, and then modernizes it and usesnew technology.It looks absolutelygorgeousand[showrunner]Eric Robles did a fantastic job.It very much feels like Stranger Things and transports you back to2018 when that season two came out.”

Set in Hawkins, Indiana, in the winter of 1985, Tales from ’85 sees Eleven and her friends unravel a paranormal mystery terrorizing their town. The voice cast includes Brooklyn Davey Norstedt as Eleven, Jolie Hoang-Rappaport as Max, Luca Diaz as Mike, Ej (Elisha) Williams as Lucas, Braxton Quinney as Dustin, Ben Plessala as Will and Brett Gipson as Hopper. Additional voice actors include Odessa A’zion, Janeane Garofalo and Lou Diamond Phillips.

Ross adds of the animated series, “It allows fora younger audience whomaybecan’tsee the flagship show to be able to enjoy these characters, and then when they getolder,they can jump to the show and it all tracks.”

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Season five ofStranger Thingswill be released in three parts:Volume 1 on Nov. 26(consisting of four episodes), Volume 2 on Christmas (three episodes) and The Finale on New Year’s Eve. Findeverything we know aboutStranger Things‘ final season here.